First let's think about dictionaries. I think dictionaries pretty clearly illustrate the way in which language is imperfect. If you want to know what a word means that you don't understand you can look it up in a dictionary. There you will see the word defined with a series of other words that together make up the whole of that word. So to truly understand the word you will need to look up all the words that make up the definition. You can keep looking up each word you encounter forever. A big problem with words becomes obvious; In language there is no fundamental unit. Sure there are letters but they carry no meaning. There is no fundamental set of ideas that you can mix and match to create the meaning of all words. Let's contrast this with something like geometry. Geometry has a fundamental unit: the point. With points you can create and learn anything in geometry.Two points make a line; a series of lines connected at their ends will create a polygon; a series of infinitely short lines will create curve; and so on. No such progression and complex combination of fundamental units exists in language.
Next, I'm very curious about how a specific language effects languages imperfection. I'm talking about Spanish vs German vs Japanese vs Greek vs English. I'm no accomplished polyglot but I know some people who study other languages extensively tend to say English is an ineffective language. I don't really believe them but it got me thinking about the ability for other languages to communicate in general. I know in Spanish it is grammatically correct to say something like "No tengo ninguno" which if translated word for word means "I don't have none." So that's weird. In German you get words like "hoechsgeschwindigkeitsbegrenzung" which means speed limit. These discrepancies have to mean that some languages are more or less effective than others right? Are there languages that make it difficult for someone to organize their own thoughts? I imagine that calling up a long word like hoechsgeschwindigkeitsbegrenzung to trigger a thought might take a bit longer and be more confusing than "speed limit." But I'm not sure and I know nothing about more different languages like Mandarine Chinese that would probably complicate the idea of the imperfection of language even more.
1 comment:
I think you have a very compelling argument and I'm going to attempt to offer some of my ideas into the mix.
For starters, right at the end you mention Mandarin Chinese--a language that relies on a certain fundamental unit you say other languages lack. Yes, a letter is just a letter and does not mean much without other letters to make a bigger "whole", but Mandarin symbols are fundamental in the sense that there are a certain group of qualifications that each one stands for/ is associated with. The association is more complex than the English association of a letter with a sound, so I think that you're correct in saying the addition of this would complicate matters.
Also, you bring up interesting points about the German word for speed limit and how that may be "longer and be more confusing than 'speed limit'". At first glance, yes, this would seem longer and more confusing, but I think there's a huge problem in that line of thinking. You seem to be holding the standard of words to the English norm, which creates an imperfection in all languages, but primarily those that differ radically from English in some instances. To a German who has gone his entire life using that word (too long to retype), the concept of a words (or associations of sounds) like "speed limit" would also seem mind boggling. My full name is longer and more confusing than most American names, so would my use of a Greek name in America also make it difficult for someone to "organize their own thoughts" when they talk to me? Yes, people are confused, but only because they see any American name like "Ashely" as a norm and find mine to deviate "too much". I think in the imperfection of languages you cannot use that in the "Spanish vs German.." aka which one is better/more concise sense, but have to consider Spanish vs. Spanish and then maybe apply German. There are some Greek words that offer no American counterpart--does that mean American's failed in their language? Or does it show that there are certain sociological and political ideologies that have embedded themselves in the Greek culture so much that they have become intertwined with the language, and to that America has no counter? (However, I'm a Burkeist at heart and follow his idea of sociological criticism completely).
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.